Council Votes To Curb Parking Unit

Allentown City Council last night by a narrow margin decided to ask the state Legislature for the tools to get some control over the Parking Authority or dismantle it.

In other major actions, council overwhelmingly backed a proposed smoking ban in city buildings, gave the administration the power to bill property owners for cleanups of littered sites and supported agreements with two labor units.

The resolution asks Allentown's three state lawmakers and the heads of the House and Senate Local Government Committees to let city councils dissolve parking authorities; give them power to approve a mayor's parking authority board nominations and remove any member "at will."

Authority board members argued against the resolution, but the board's chairwoman said after the vote that the resolution would have little effect on the authority's day-to-day operation.

"It's not going to make us do anything," Chairwoman Linda Rosenfeld said.

Since his campaign last fall, Frey has pledged to do everything in his power to get rid of the authority. He claims it has an overly aggressive ticket-writing policy that's stifling business downtown.

"If the trend continues there won't be any cars to turn over and have parking violations for," Frey said.

However, authority backers challenged those claims and said that Frey refuses to open his mind and take a close look at how the authority works.

"Tony, how many times have you been invited to the Parking Authority and never attend ... How can you tell what's going on at the Parking Authority?" board member Joseph Coponi said.

Frey said that he's waiting to get some documents before he comes to a meeting. He did not specify what papers.

One of Frey's council colleagues, Cramsey, also an authority board member, said that Frey shouldn't continually attack the authority, which meely enforces the laws council passes.

"I think Councilman Frey's problem is not with the Parking Authority, but with Allentown City Council itself," Cramsey said.

Downtown businessman and failed 15th Congressional District candidate Dave Clark complained that the authority is in a bind because it has to pay its bills. "They can fine for a profit," he said.

He said residents and merchants suffer from the ticketing.

"The main problem us merchants have with the Parking Authority is they are too efficient," he said.

Cramsey disputed that Clark represents the bulk of downtown merchants.

The authority helped maintain order in one city neighborhood, said resolution foe Ernest Kaiser, president of the 6th Ward Civic Association.

If the authority is dissolved and police have to write tickets, parking enforcement will suffer, he said.

"I'm sure we're all aware, council is aware, this will come in as a low priority ... We will get priority zero, zero, zero," Kaiser said.

Rosenfeld told council the authority handles a range of responsibilities other than ticketing. "Not one dime of taxpayers money is used to operate the authority," she added.

Council backed the smoking-ban resolution despite the objection of the leader of city's largest municipal workers union that he's working with Mayor Joseph Daddona to come up with a policy.

Service Employees International Union President John Halasovski said that the union believes smoking in city buildings and vehicles is a work condition that has to be negotiated.

"I think if council jumps the gun and upsets the apple cart, there'll be a ruckus," Halasovski said.

Council rejected 6-1 an amendment from Daddona to create designated smoking rooms.

Three members of Daddona's administration said they opposed the amendment offered by the mayor and that the smoking ban must be comprehensive. Toth was the sole council member to support the amendment.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 10 President Glenn Kerrigan said he didn't like the resolution because a smoking ban would mean that investigators no longer could offer suspects cigarettes to loosen them up and perhaps get confessions.

Two council resolutions authorized labor agreements last night. The first, passed 6-1, was a formality to accept a state fact-finder's report that resolved the dispute between the SEIU and the city.

The second, passed unanimously, accepted the wage and benefits package for city managers who will get $675 raises this year and $1,200 raises next year.

The bill giving the administration the power to clean some of the city's most littered properties and bill the owners passed unanimously.